Rebecca Lothian

Clinical Nurse Specialist – Hepatitis C Treatment Coordinator

Kirketon Road Centre

“At the Kirketon Road Centre we work with a lot of vulnerable and marginalised populations, such as people who inject drugs, young people at risk, sex workers and the homeless. Most of our clients need a lot of extra support to achieve a hepatitis C cure and I am directly involved with them, but within a multidisciplinary team.  This is my 21st year of nursing and I’ve never ever worked within a team that’s as cohesive as Kirketon Road. We cannot provide a service for people with challenging behaviour without seriously, comprehensively and genuinely supporting each other. 

We don’t just give clients a prescription and send them on their way. It’s important with marginalised clients to have a very good professional rapport with them, so that if something goes awry, they feel comfortable to get in touch to say ‘I’ve mucked up, can you help me out’.

Hepatitis C is now curable.  It’s been an interesting time to work in the sector.  In a sense my job has an expiry date, because I’m working toward becoming obsolete. As pessimistic as it might sound on the surface, its’ really quite exciting –we can do this.”